Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Tanner Bros photos of Auckland

One day, some time ago, I spotted a tiny envelope in a secondhand bookstore (regular visitors to Timespanner will know that secondhand bookstores are my drug, and every so often I weaken ... quite badly ...). Anyway, the envelope was a wee collection of "Real Photographs for your Snapshot Album" from Auckland, New Zealand, by Tanner Bros Ltd.

The best I can find about Tanner Bros is from here. Apparently, they were a Wellington firm, established around 1904, with branches in Auckland and London. The Maori motif border reminds me a lot of cheap and obiquitous souvenir shops in Rotorua from the late 1970s -- but these images, I'd say, date from the 1930-1950 period.

Ah, Partington's Mill. Over 60 years since it was removed from Auckland City's skyline, just the mere mention of it is enough to make local historians grind teeth and mutter, "They never should have removed the mill!" All we have is art, images of its destruction ... and advertisements. This one (below) from the Auckland Star, 7 May 1930.

Search this blog

"He that would know what shall be, must consider what hath been." -- H.G. Bohn, Handbook of Proverbs, 1855.

"...here's the beginning. Everything needs a beginning, otherwise we'd all start in the middle and get terribly confused by the end." -- Timespanner, 20 September 2008

Anything of interest to you here?

I publish information and research notes here freely. If you would like to copy or print out anything of interest, whether you're an individual researcher or an institution such as a library, museum or school etc. -- go for it. An acknowledgment as to where it came from would be appreciated, and a link to Timespanner from a website warmly welcomed (let me know, and I will reciprocate).

MY PHOTOS ARE NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. Usage in other places must NOT and will NOT indicate otherwise.